Dark Horse
Say It With Manga – Assassins Edition
There are a lot of manga series about assassins. Kazuo Koike has penned several, in fact, including Sanctuary, Crying Freeman, and Lone Wolf and Cub, one of the more famous series. But there are many titles with assassins in them, a few that deal with killers of men, and a handful with an assassin character, who may be serious or a joke. Sometimes the assassins are somehow benevolent, sometimes they’re disturbed individuals, and sometimes they’re just professionals. But here are three series, all of them quite good, that deal with three different types of assassins.
Say It With Manga, Zombie Edition
Zombies aren’t quite in season, but it can be interesting to look at them anyway. Also uninteresting, as the theme is becoming a bit tired, but it’s a good idea that can be approached from many different directions. There’s a metric ton of manga that use zombies as a theme, from Is This a Zombie? to Zombie-Loan, High School of the Dead to Evil’s Return. Talking about three is only scratching the surface, but here are three that use the zombie in three different ways.
Say It With Manga, The Pet Edition
While I have none myself, pets are near and dear to many people. It follows that there are many series about keeping pets, and manga is no exception. There are whole magazines dedicated to the genre of pet comics in Japan, but only a few series have been translated into English over the years. Honestly, I did try to come up with series with more unusual animals… the heroine of Wild Act keeps flying squirrels that help her commit thefts, for instance, and Io Sakisaka has a strange habit of relating stories about her chinchilla giving birth in the author’s notes of Strobe Edge. But pets aren’t really the focus of those, and this week, I’m looking at a few series that are specifically about cats and dogs.
For the record, Guru Guru Pon-chan is the best series I can think of about keeping a pet, but it’s so unbelievably weird and uncomfortable that I’m saving it for another day. Do look it up though, if you’re curious.
Trade paperbacks, older editions, and miscellaneous for April 2013
“And for a while things were cold / They were scared down in their holes / The forest that once was green / Was coloured black by those killing machines”
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Flippin’ through Previews – May 2013
Previews #296 is out in the world, and I’m going to look through it! What will I find? NO MAN CAN SAY!!!! Continue Reading »
Ecce libri cum picturis: Young Avengers #4, among other books
You know, I hate living in a world where Kelly Thompson is even a little right, confound it!!!
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Trade paperbacks, older editions, and miscellaneous for February AND March 2013
Last month, I didn’t get a chance to finish all of these before I went to the convention in Seattle, and then I was busy when I got back. So this month, we get a double dose of trades and books I’ve read and such. That means this is really long, and I apologize for that!
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Flippin’ through Previews – April 2013
I’m back on schedule, so let’s dig into Previews #295 and see what’s what!
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What I bought – 20 March 2013
An old Ukrainian proverb warns, “A tale that begins with a beet will end with the devil.”
That is a risk we will have to take. (Tom Robbins, from Jitterbug Perfume)
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Flippin’ through Previews – March 2013
It’s a bit late due to other things, but let’s check out Previews #294 – maybe there’s some interesting stuff in it!
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What I bought – 27 February and 6 March 2013
George looked at his granddaughter’s empty suit. He thought of Job. Satan lacked imagination. To crack a man’s faith, one need not resort to burning his flesh, ruining his finances, or any such obvious afflictions. One need only take a man’s species away from him. (James Morrow, This Is The Way The World Ends)
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What I bought – 20 February 2013
There is not much importance in giving an award of importance to someone of no importance. (Joseph Heller, from Picture This)
What I bought – 13 February 2013
Sipping drinks on the porch in the sunset, Farsheed Shomloo, an immigration lawyer, pointed to a book on the patio table and told Jim, “You should read this new book about Iran, it’s really interesting.” Jim replied:
“I don’t want to read it. I know the outcome already. In Iran, there is beautiful poetry and everything turns out a disaster. Here the poetry is not so beautiful, but people are free to discover the best in themselves; that’s why America has happy endings. Here it’s a negative system: there is no entrenched despotism, no will to dominate. We immigrants can remake the whole country if we want to. It’s ours for the taking, as if there is a perpetual clean slate where nobody is ever owed anything. I’ll tell you, the Iranian revolution was a disaster for Iran and a success for America, because it brought a lot of talented, ambitious Iranians here. Every time there is a disaster in the Third World, it’s a good thing for America, since the best of the middle class finds its way here.” (Robert Kaplan, from An Empire Wilderness)
Say It With Manga, Valentine’s Day Edition
This being Valentine’s Day, I could only talk about manga with a focus on relationships. Specifically, I’m looking at one volume that’s a bit twisted, one that’s bittersweet, and one that’s just all kinds of awesome. All of them are single-volume works, so there’s a little anti-Valentine’s Day lack of commitment wrapped up in here, too.
What I bought – 6 February 2013
“Italians have made the family an extremist group. The family is the instrument of revenge.” (Don DeLillo, from The Names)
